Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI), Mysore

Dr. Raghavarao, B.Tech., PhD, FIEChief Scientist, Dept. of Food EngineeringCFTRI, Mysore

Industry-Academia-Research/Government Interface (IARGI)

A FICCI-MFPI Initiative

Preamble

• Public-Private Partnerships gaining importance.

Eg : Industry-Academia-Research/Government Interface (IARGI)

• One way for industries to enhance their technological innovation capabilities and develop new applications is to collaborate with universities and public knowledge institutes.

• Intended for longer-term basic research (LTBR) by academics in close contact with industrial researchers in areas with a good potential for innovation and challenging scientific questions.

Contd…..

• Industrial partner and FICCI/MFPI/CSIR together finance an IARGI.

• IARGI provides an insight into how fundamental science can add to innovation, and, ultimately, commercialization in industries/firms.

• IARGI is developed, managed, and executed by CSIR/MFPI and could provide a tool to help shape the (open) innovation process from a basic science perspective.

• In moving frontiers of knowledge, universities are important contributors to technological innovation, thru basic/applied research.

• Generic links b/w universities & industry like graduate recruitment, scientific publications or patents add to innovation capacity of companies.

• However, organized relationship, such as IARGI, for contract research, consultancy etc. play an important role in driving the innovation processes.

• IARGIs also realized by establishing a research lab at/near academic premises, for more collaborative research and longer-term relationships. (Eg : Godrej R & D Center at ICT).

• Every IARGI is a research program, consisting of multiple projects and different in that within a PPP, a company can be connected to several univ’s distributed in a regional network (in contrast to global distribution).

• FICCI/MFPI/CSIR serve as link b/w universities and companies.

Contd…..

Aims & Objectives of IARGI

• Generated knowledge should find its way more efficiently & effectively to existing industries and entrepreneurs.

• MFPI/CSIR along with FICCI support commercialization and entrepreneurship.

• IARGI is intended for LTBR by MFPI/CSIR scientists in close contact with industrial & academic researchers in areas with a good potential for innovation, challenging scientific questions.

• In other words, joint research that might yield groundbreaking innovations.

Contd….

• To contribute more visibly to a knowledge based economy without compromising high scientific standards.

• Scientific quality is ultimate determinant for project funding. Industries “buy” their access to knowledge generated from program & also get access to MFPI/CSIR network.

• An IARGI can be “open/closed” type. In a closed program, all projects are already defined & research consortium is established when application is submitted.

• In open program, a program proposal is written after which a call for research project proposals is organized.

Advent of Open Innovation & Need for IARGI

• Deconcentration in “corporate research” is accompanied by decline in in-house fundamental research.

• Instead of keeping all knowledge internal and secret, industries now link to external sources of knowledge.

• This is partly brought about by increasing complexity of technological developments.

• Industrial innovation is increasingly dependent on R&D outsourcing and ability to participate in strategic alliances, especially for large companies.

• In Open innovation paradigm, R&D is treated as an open system.

• With this devpmt., role of MFPI/CSIR in R&D ecosystem has changed & IARGI is a response to need of industries for fundamental knowledge & new ideas.

Contd….

Structure of IARGI

• Corporate R&D labs should act more like science parks & incubators & seek strategic alliances.

(Eg: A firm hired a pilot plant for carbon fibers at NAL, Bangalore).

• In-cash contribution from industry - at least 50% of the total research project costs.

• Minimum feasible size of an IARGI ~ Rs 50 lacs (1 Post-doc, 2 Ph.Ds or PAs; chemicals, travel, conferences/workshops, 3 yrs).

• Award of programs on the basis of peer review assessment and FICCI/MFPI/CSIR committee.

Design of IARGI Program

• Fundamental research by MFPI/CSIR personnel in close cooperation with researchers from one or more industries.

• Partners jointly formulate the research objectives.

• Industries finance at least half of the program budget in cash.

• Each program budget amounts to at least Rs. 50 lacs.

• Every program proposal is to be assessed for its scientific quality by independent referees.

• Agreements are made about the intellectual property rights & disclosure of information.

Six Basic Conditions

Execution of an IARGI Program

• A formal reporting scheme consisting of progress meetings with all partners, progress reports, & exchange of researchers.

• Mirror projects & project leaders at company; every project has a contact person at company that is available for discussions, inventions, & access to infrastructure.

• This person also takes care of in-company embedding of the knowledge.

• Education of IARGI researchers through trainings.

• Informal meetings are a relevant aspect of knowledge transfer

Experiences Elsewhere

• PPP had gained in popularity among researchers from academia, industry, research agencies & other stakeholders.

• How to measure if your program is successful?

– For FICCI/CSIR/MFPI, an IARGI is successful if it results in scientific publications, in human capital (trained PhDs & Post-docs), and if the firms acquired relevant new knowledge that facilitated their innovations (patents etc.)

– Cash contribution from industry increased, hence may be concluded that PPP is a successful instrument

Who are the scientists involved in IARGI?

• We can see that

– scientists who are most successful in obtaining basic research grants, are also most successful in an IARGI

– Most researchers prefer a traditional academic publishing career over a career that is open to producing commercial outputs.

– scientific excellence is significantly associated with the generation of successful commercial outputs.

• IARGI “utilizes” what comes naturally to basic researchers, w/o expecting them to become all application-driven scientists or entrepreneurs.

• However, awareness by the researchers for the application perspective is desired to facilitate communication.

Knowledge Transfer

• Realized through publications & invention disclosures, tacit knowledge thru formal meetings & reports, exchange of students in laboratories, and informal bilateral contacts.

• we can distinguish three kinds of relationships b/w industry & academia that drive innovation process:

– Technology transfer mechanisms, human mobility & inter-organizational relationships.

– Establishing mirror projects & project leaders at company as contact persons for academic researchers.

– Problem-solving sessions & scientific cases with realistic data from companies.

– A stay of PhD students & post-docs for longer period (months) at a company to apply knowledge

Mechanisms to meet expectations of both parties on outcome of IARGI

• Industry is involved in writing of program proposal (closed or open IARGI) to fix main lines of research.

• Agreements about goals, confidentiality are discussed during first meetings to build confidence/trust among participants.

• Awareness among researchers about objectives & significance of IPR protection to understand a company’s strategy.

• IPR to companies & make revenues thereof available to inventors for research purposes.

Experiences from Industrial Partners

• Biggest asset of IARGI is contact that occurs b/w experts from different perspectives, all working on same problem.

• Real exchange of knowledge does not occur via reports & books but via people.

• PhD students do not remain in their own laboratories but undertake internships at participating companies.

• Senior scientists (contact persons) from industry, spend a day once in two weeks in laboratory of their scientific partner.

• Secret of ARIP lies in one-stop shopping that gives industry to have access to entire research community of a given broad area.

Experiences from Academics

• Academic community was somewhat skeptical at start of IARGI in the beginning.

• Researchers feared a potential loss of academic freedom and less budget for free basic research.

• Once researchers are involved in an IARGI, several other benefits appear

– Extension of network & potential for new relations, collaborations, & funding– Access gained to new infrastructure & expertise.– Access to realistic data for their models– Feeling for issues at stake in companies, understanding of their strategies,&

awareness for patent opportunities– Training of young researchers in an industrial environment– Motivating connection b/w fundamental research & use of this knowledge by

industry.

• Researchers get inspired to convert their fundamental research results into industrial practice.

Conclusions

• Universities & Research Institutes are important source of knowledge & human capital.

• As such, they have a stake in the innovation process.

• Ultimately their scientific breakthroughs often are basis of new technology related products.

• With many firms embracing open innovation, they increasingly rely on inter-organizational relationships like PPP collaborations as tool to enhance their innovation capacity.

Contd…..

• At fundamental level, Public research organization & Academic institution can contribute to innovation process w/o compromising their core acitivity of research and teaching, respectively.

• If scientific excellence is pursued success will follow automatically.

• Thus an IARGI Program (particularly MNCs with R&D laboratories & Univs) can contribute more visibly to knowledge-based economy.

Thank you for kind attention

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